Category Archives: Finish-A-Long

October 10, 2013 · 07:46

4th Quarter Finish-a-Long

I took a break and skipped out on the 3rd quarter so I am primed and ready to commit to finishes for the final quarter of Leanne’s finish-a-long (FAL).

I am going to try and finish a whopping ~~8 (Update 2013OCT11)~~ 13 projects. Most of them are quilt tops waiting to be quilted .

First, I have two Christmas present projects that are in the piecing phase. Both are lap quilts that I hope the recipients will enjoy. Can’t give too many details or pictures in case they see my post.

Next I have two quilt tops from the Quiltessential Co. 2012 block of the month program. I did the blocks in two colour ways: Blues and Opera. They both need to be sandwiched, quilted and bound so that they will be ready for the quilt show in early January.

Then I have Leftovers I (trim and bind) and Leftovers II (sandwich, quilt and bind).

My Kimono wall hanging is still waiting to be quilted. I think it was on my Quarter 2 list but never got any attention.

I still have the first quilt top that I ever made. It is waiting for the last piece of the border to be sewn on and then comes the fun part…FMQ.

(Update: 2013Oct11) And last but not least I have volunteered to free motion quilt 5 tops for the High River Quilt Project (read more about it here).

Boy this is a big list but I’ve got faith that I can make a significant dent in my pile of quilt tops waiting for some free motion loving.

WIP Wednesday #3

I am happy to announce that I have finished “Leftovers I”. It will now go into my pile of finished quilt tops waiting for cooler weather so that I can sandwich it and start the free motion quilting. I still have tons of 2″x 1-3/8″ tiny rectangles that I need to use up. Time to start designing a “Leftovers II” quilt.

The picture is a little dark. The background is a much brighter white on creamy white pattern.

2013 WIP	Size	Current status
Pink & blue batik	King	waiting for borders
Asian Shadow Box	King	waiting for borders
2012 BOM ‘Blues’	King	quilt top
2012 BOM ‘Opera	King	quilt top
Kimono	Wall hanging	quilt top
Waterlily	Wall hanging	quilt top
One block wonder	Queen	piecing
Peacock	Lap	quilt top
Leftovers I	Lap	quilt top
Leftovers II	Lap	piecing
Star Surround QAL	Lap	piecing
Blue Hydrangea	King	FMQ
Dragonflies	Wall hanging	Binding


2013 Completions	Size
2011 BOM ‘Spring	King
Blue Odyssey	King
Kassidy’s flannel	Baby
Sue’s Summer Breeze	Queen/King

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July 4, 2013 · 18:57

2nd Quarter FAL Wrap Up

Well I am embarrassed to admit that my 2nd quarter participating in Leanne’s Finish-A-Long was a bust. I committed to finishing 4 items (see my list here) but I only managed to finish one….Sue’s Summer Breeze. I have no good excuses except for the fact that I seem to prefer starting new projects rather than finishing existing ones. I’ve managed to start two new quilts during the quarter….they may end up being added to my 3rd or 4th quarter FAL wish list.

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June 3, 2013 · 13:56

First FAL finish of Quarter #2

I’m half way through the second quarter finish-a-long and I’ve finally finished my first project. It is a triple irish chain that I made for my friend Sue in Ontario. She is a long time friend who follows my blog and makes such nice comments about my quilting and my four legged kids. To see more pictures and read about the making of this quilt, click here.

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Tagged as Irish Chain, Summer Breeze, Triple Irish Chain

April 13, 2013 · 20:24

2013 FAL – 2nd Quarter

It is time to pick the unfinished quilts (UFOs) that I am going to commit to completing in the second quarter of this year’s quilt finish-a-long (FAL). I have 4 projects. I am going to focus on free motion quilting (FMQ) and finish a bunch of tops that have been lying around because I didn’t have any experience/confidence. I still don’t have a whole lot of experience but I am ready to challenge myself.

#1 – Kimono: I made this wall hanging 2-3 years ago and it has been hanging in my closet since then. It needs to be basted, quilted and bound.

#2 – Dragon Fly: Here is another wall hanging. It has some quilting but it needs to be finished. I also want to give it a scalloped border (I’ve never tried a fancy border) and bind it.

#3 – Sue’s Summer Breeze: This is a triple Irish chain quilt that I am making for my friend Sue. I can’t show you a picture of it because she follows my blog and I don’t want her to see it before it is finished.

#4 Once again I am going to try and finish my Blue Hydrangea quilt that I had planned to finish in the 1st quarter. I have to remove the grid stitching in the 16 flower blocks and then replace them with some free motion quilting that I hope will do a better job of showcasing the floral prints. I am still waiting for the custom ordered silk thread to arrive so that I can start the FMQ.

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April 5, 2013 · 11:00

1st Quarter FAL Wrap-up

I am very proud of myself. I finished 3 of the 4 projects that I had picked to finish in the first quarter of the 2013 quilt finish-a-long. I wasn’t able to redo the free motion quilting on Blue Hydrangea because the 100wt silk thread I ordered hasn’t arrived yet. I did manage to finish hand sewing on the binding and I picked out the stitching that the long arm quilter did on the blocks so that it will be ready for my attempt at FMQ when the thread arrives.

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April 5, 2013 · 10:49

FAL Finish – Blue Odyssey

Last but not least I finished this monster. It is huge. I started it in January 2012 and worked on it on and off throughout the year. It took the FAL to get me to finish the FMQ and to hand sew on the binding. Click here to see more pictures and read about the quilt construction.

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April 5, 2013 · 10:37

FAL Finish – Flannel Baby/Twin Quilt

Here is my finished flannel baby/twin quilt. It had been sitting around for a few months waiting for the binding to be hand sewn (my least favourite job). Click here to read more about this quilt and see more pictures.

FAL Finish – 2011 BOM

2011 BOM

I am so happy to finally finish this quilt from the 2011 Block-of-the-Month program at QuiltEssential Co. The 12 blocks sat around for months while I tried to get the motivation to assemble them into a quilt top. Although I did enjoy the BOM experience, I really wasn’t thrilled with the end result….too traditional for my tastes. Thanks to this FAL and my commitment to get it done in time for the annual quilt show….it is finished. The really amazing news is that it won 2nd place in the show. I was totally shocked. Click here to read more about this quilt.

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January 9, 2013 · 18:07

2013 FAL – 1st Quarter

It is time to pick the unfinished quilts (UFOs) that I am going to commit to completing in the first quarter of this year’s quilt finish-a-long (FAL). This is my first FAL so I want to pick UFOs that have been hanging around for a while and that I am sure, ok pretty sure, that I will actually be able to complete as promised.

My first choice is the 2011 Block of the Month (BOM) with Quilt Essential. I managed to get all my blocks done in 2011 and I even started working on assembling the quilt top in early 2012 but I never finished it. This Sunday is the annual BOM quilt show and we are supposed to have our 2011 quilts done and hanging in the show. I’m pretty close. I just have to finish sewing on the binding and cut off all the threads.

You can see why it takes so long to hand sew on the binding…..my little, furry quilt helper loves to take a nap in the middle of my project. I don’t have the heart to disturb the princess so that I can move on to a new section.

My second choice is my Blue Hydrangea quilt. This is the first quilt top I ever made. It hung around my sewing room for a year before I found a long armer to quilt it for me. Unfortunately he forgot to use the beautiful wool batting that I provided (he used a plain cotton blend) and he didn’t quilt the individual flower blocks they way we had discussed. It hung around for another year waiting for me to put the binding on. I procrastinated because I wanted to use a striped fabric on the bias but I had never made biased binding before. I’ve almost got all the binding on now but I still want to pick out all the stitching on the floral blocks and replace it with some free motion quilting that will show off the blocks. I’m a newbie free motion quilter (FMQ) so hopefully I don’t wreck the quilt.

My final FAL for this quarter will be my Blue Odyssey quilt. I saw a beautiful wall hanging in an old edition of Quilt Mania. I decided to try and duplicate the design and change it from a small wall quilt into a king size quilt. I went a little overboard buying fabric. When all is said and done I bet I will get at least one and quite likely 2 quilts out of the leftover fabric. I need to finish the FMQ and then put the binding on….my least favourite part of making a quilt.

Update: 2013JAN13

I’m feeling ambitious today so I am going to add one more project to the FAL. It is a fleece baby/twin quilt. Once again it is one of my many UFO’s waiting for the binding to be hand sewn on to the back of the quilt. I had an emergency appendectomy a few days ago so I am not able to sit at my machine and sew/quilt for a couple of weeks. I have no excuse not to stretch out in the lazyboy and do the hand sewing.

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December 30, 2012 · 18:01

An end to UFO quilts

Like most quilters I have tons of quilts that I have started but never finished (UFO). I either get excited about a new project and start it before I’ve finished the current one…..or I get sick of looking at the current project and need a break….who really knows why we do it….but I’ve got lots of UFOs. I’ve joined the 2013 Finish-A-Long (FAL) to help me tackle my growing mound of outstanding quilts. Basically, participants identify and photograph UFOs that you want to finish in the upcoming FAL quarter. The goal is the get each of those projects done and out of your sewing room. They have to be projects that you have already started not something new. You have to prepare your list of UFOs, blog about it and at the end of the quarter you will post links to your completed projects. I am hoping that this will be the boot-in-the-fanny that I need to get some of these projects off my to-do list. Here is a link to the 2013 FAL if you are interested.

Now I just need to identify the list for the first quarter. The 2011 Block-of-the-Month (BOM) quilt that I started almost 2 years ago will be at the top of my first list. The annual BOM quilt show is on January 14th so I really need to get my butt in gear to meet that deadline too.

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